


destiny

by Blue_Rive



Category: Deltarune (Video Game), Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Nonbinary Chara (Undertale), Nonbinary Kris (Deltarune), dove probably hoards things like a dragon or smth, dove/the vessel is very socially awkward, i think chara and dove are both neurodivergent but i'm not and i didnt do much research so, i wanted to write angst but instead i got this, mute character, some weird style experimenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2019-09-10
Packaged: 2020-10-13 19:04:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20587517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Rive/pseuds/Blue_Rive
Summary: ...there are two children beyond the edge of the world, now. the second one must have just emerged out of the mist, or perhaps they were always there.the second child has colors. and they are warm, the child can feel it, unconsciously moving closer like a ghost longing for life. (they are both ghosts.)they feel like a contradiction to everything the child knows, color and warmth and sound and light. (the child dares to hope the other will be kind.)they reach out a hand. the child takes it, and they are not falling, anymore.





	destiny

**Author's Note:**

> im very sleep deprived. here have this.

there is a child, beyond the edge of the world.

they are falling. (for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction). 

they have been falling since the beginning of the time, or five minutes ago. they do not know. there are no clocks in the void, and if there was, they would not work. 

they are grey, all grey. they haven’t seen any color yet. the void doesn’t have any of those, either. it does not have much of anything. 

they have one gift. kindness. they do not know what it is supposed to mean. (the void is not kind.) it is a label thrown on them. they would like to peel it off, except it is theirs, and they have never owned anything before. so they resolve to be kind. 

...there are two children beyond the edge of the world, now. the second one must have just emerged out of the mist, or perhaps they were always there. 

the second child has  _ colors.  _ and they are warm, the child can feel it, unconsciously moving closer like a ghost longing for life. (they are both ghosts.) 

they feel like a contradiction to everything the child knows, color and warmth and sound and light. (the child dares to hope the other will be kind.) 

they reach out a hand. the child takes it, and they are not falling, anymore.

\---

“Greetings. I am Chara,” they say, and there is  _ sound,  _ words that the child finds themself processing, understanding. “Do… do you have a name?” 

The child thinks. They do not especially like their name, and they would like to be given one by Chara, rather than some being from another layer of reality. They shake their head, biting their lip. 

“Okay… okay.” Chara brushes their hand across the child’s shoulder. It’s so warm. “How about Dove? That’s a type of bird. I was thinking of using it when I was coming up with a new name for myself after I figured out I was nonbinary.” 

So many things the child does not know-  _ bird  _ and  _ nonbinary  _ and all of that- but they like the sound of Dove. So they nod. That’s another thing they own, now- a proper name. 

“Dove it is, then,” Chara frowns. They have light skin, white but in an alive-way, tinged with brown and pink. “Can you… talk?” 

Dove shakes their head. They were never given a voice, when they entered existence. 

“O-oh.” Chara pauses, then mutters, mostly to themselves, “You’re a  _ person,  _ aren’t you? Just… just a kid, like me and Frisk and Kris. I didn’t think… didn’t think you’d be like this.” They push their hair out of their eyes- it’s dark brown, shining and straight, unlike Dove’s nondescript curly hair. “Dove. D’you know what sign language is? It’s a way to communicate without speaking out loud.”

That was a thing you could do? Dove sits forward, listening carefully. 

Chara tucked their hand into a fist, thumb pointed up. “Uhm, this is A…” 

Dove imitated. (They don’t know how to spell, very well, but they know the alphabet, almost like people could talk in text and out loud in their world, and could hardly tell the difference.) 

Chara moves on to the rest of the alphabet. They seem to like teaching, dropping their slow, careful words and talking fast, waving their hands around in animated gestures. 

Learning things is nice. It feels like with every new sign they figure out, they own something new. And it’s easy, for them- Chara comments on how quickly they’re picking it up, and Dove glows with the praise. 

“...and this is yes, and this is no.” Chara pauses. “Do you want to learn more?” 

Dove signs  _ yes  _ fiercely. 

Chara laughs a little. “Okay, then.” 

Dove points to Chara and painstakingly spells out  _ teach me to say colors.  _

And so Chara teaches them green, and orange, and brown, and yellow, and red, and white, and then unprompted goes on to  _ hello,  _ and  _ how are you,  _ and  _ okay,  _ and  _ what,  _ and  _ thank you  _ and  _ you’re welcome  _ and  _ please  _ and  _ run _ (just in case).

Dove does not have a very good concept of time, but it was a while, enough that the latest sign is forgotten and Chara’s eyelids start to drop.

“I’ll teach you more tomorr- later, okay? And then I need to talk to you about something-- about a plan.” 

“Okay,” Dove signs, and settles into the void, and closes their eyes. They feel something fall over them, and it is warm. 

\---

When they wake up, Chara is there, and Dove instinctively reaches out, grabbing onto the color and warmth and brightness. 

Chara pushes them off. “P-please don’t touch me without asking.” 

They’d thought Chara’s undeniable light was theirs, but it wasn’t. They curl into themselves and sign, “Okay.” 

Chara frowns at them. They’re clutching onto the green-and-yellow sweater Chara had covered them with last night, and try to put it on like they’d seen Chara wear it. ...It takes a few tries. Their hair is mussed, but it clicks back into place, because nothing is supposed to change in the void, except they’re still wearing that sweater. 

“...we should get you a coat.” 

Dove frowns and spells out C-O-A-T-?

“It’s like a sweater, but warmer, and it has a zip on the front usually.” Chara waves their hand around the front of their shirt. “I’m a ghost, so I don’t really feel the cold, not since Frisk and my partition.” 

Dove didn’t know Chara was a ghost. They felt so  _ alive,  _ more so than Dove did. 

“Alright, listen. I need you to do something.” 

“What?” Dove signs. They are supposed to do things for people, so this should feel natural, more than just sitting and talking with Chara, but they just feel a bit nervous. 

Chara’s eyes are intense, a combination of red and brown that’s so, so pretty but only because it’s the brightest color Dove knows. “There’s a kid, named Kris. I need you to go to them, and help them.” 

“Okay,” Dove signs, then spells out H-O-W? 

“I’m- I’m working on a way to get us out of the void, okay? My friend Frisk, on the other end, they’re helping too. Oh, and this is sign language for how.” Chara gestures, touching their knuckles together in a shape sort of like a heart and then turning their hands over.

Dove frowns. Frisk and Kris and everyone- do they have Chara more than Dove does? They’ve only known each other for a little while, so that kind of makes sense, but still… 

“Okay,” Dove signs again, more hesitantly. 

Chara smiles thinly. “Okay.” 

\---

Dove and Chara have known each other for a little while, now. Chara spends most of their time looking for a way out of the void. Dove tries to help them, but Chara’s so smart and they keep on going on tangents Dove doesn’t understand and doing complicated things with code. 

They’ve taken to sleeping in shifts- Dove never used to sleep, before, but now that they know Chara, time feels more real somehow. They feel if they had a clock, now, it might work, though they would not know how to read it. 

Chara is awake, and Dove is not supposed to be, but is anyway, watching Chara gaze out at the darkness. (Chara lets themself show sadness when Dove is supposed to be asleep- they don’t cry, really, just laugh to themself, but that is worse somehow.) Chara seems okay tonight, though, so Dove lets themself drift off. 

They wake up to find Chara glaring at someone who does not exist and who they half-recognize- it is the one who made them, they think, the one who made everything. They pretend they are still asleep, so they can listen to what the two are talking about. They are not supposed to, they know, and they are made to follow orders. It feels like this is another thing that is theirs, only they have stolen it instead of being given. They sort of like the feeling.

I ONLY WANT

WHAT IS BEST FOR YOU

AND THE WORLD, the creator says. 

“In the words of an old friend,” Chara spits, “Fuck. Off.” 

Gaster glances around Chara. Dove closes their eyes tighter. 

IS THAT

THE VESSEL

Chara edges in front of them. “No.”

I THOUGHT

YOU KILLED IT 

BUT NO MATTER

LET US PUT IT

INTO ITS PROPER PLACE

Chara draws something, and it’s pretty, shining bright and reflecting what little light there is. “You are not putting Kris in here. They don’t deserve any of this! They’re just a kid, like me and Frisk and Dove.”

YOU HAVE NAMED IT?

“Yeah- that doesn’t matter! And they’re not an ‘it’, they’re a they.” 

Gaster inclines his head. 

MY APOLOGIES. 

Dove gives up pretending to be asleep and pushes themself up, standing on shaky legs. “What--” they sign, and then stop, because they don’t know the words for ‘what’s going on’ or ‘why do you know him’ or ‘of course you like Kris better than me’ or ‘I’m scared’. 

Gaster moves to grip onto them with one of his magic hands, that aren’t attached. Dove twists away, and an expression of faint surprise flits across his face. 

THE EXPERIMENT HAS ACQUIRED A MIND OF ITS- THEIR OWN.

VERY

VERY

INTERESTING. 

Chara points the knife at Gaster. “Get away from them.” 

CHARA

YOU KNOW HOW THIS MUST GO

I AM TRYING TO FIX MY MISTAKES

“Yeah, well, you’re doing a shitty job with it!”

I DO NOT WANT TO HURT YOU

BUT IF WE FIGHT

YOU WILL NOT WIN

Chara pauses, and a million expressions pass over their bright, colorful face. Then they twist around and point the knife at Dove, and it does not look as pretty anymore. 

“I’ll kill them, and then your experiment will never work, now Kris has learned to fight back.” 

Dove’s eyes widen, and they scramble messily back, and Chara’s looking at them with almost sadness and signs ‘ _ run’  _ and Dove does. 

\---

They’re running through the void for they don’t know how long, tripping over their feet and trying not to look back. They get a good distance away (though that means nothing in the void) and then they think to try one of Chara’s tricks, with the code, and it  _ works.  _ There’s a panel up in front of them that they can read and they do Chara’s latest portal code, and then change it a bit, because Chara was muttering about that last time, and something happens- it’s working, it’s working- and the world opens up into blinding light. 

There’s a hole, in the void, and through it is the brightest, lightest,  _ warmest  _ place Dove has ever seen- the heat is half searing, and yet Dove loves it, wants to grab onto it and hold it and keep it as theirs forever.

They glance back, once, to cold and falling and grey but also Chara and sign language and warm sweaters- and then they jump through the portal. 

They land on the ground with a thud and it’s  _ solid  _ and the world is so colorful it hurts. They are not sure where they are, because they do not have any points of reference to compare it to. There are tall walls and something cutting off the sky and a window and the light shining through it is even brighter than the rest of the room and something soft, so soft, but not in the way the void is half intangible but more like- more like Chara’s sweater- and they flop across it and grip it tight. 

The door creaks open and they sit bolt upright. Standing in the door is a person- another person, like Chara and them!- eyes wide and startled. 

“Why are you here. And why are you in  _ his  _ bed,” they hiss. 

Dove is not sure if that is a question that should be answered or not. They clutch the blanket tighter instead of answering. 

The teenager crosses the room and grabs their collar.  _ “They  _ sent you, didn’t they. The Angel. Him.” 

Dove signs, messy, fumbling, “What’s the Angel? I’m looking for K-R-I-S.”

“Wha--” The teenager tugs Dove forward.  _ “Why.”  _

“To-” --Dove’s hands are shaking so much they mess up the sign. They try again-- “To help them.”

The teenager lets them go, and Dove falls back across the bed. 

“Well, you found them. I’m Kris. Now who are you?”

_ This  _ was Kris?  _ Chara’s Kris?  _ Dove had expected them to be different, somehow. “My name is Dove,” they sign. 

Kris frowned in a way that made them think that hadn’t been what they wanted to hear, so Dove continued.

“I think I was supposed to be-- Chara said I was supposed to be you, but then they said that I  _ shouldn’t  _ be, because then you’d end up in the Void. So I dunno what to do. But I had to run, and then I just kind of ended up here. Also I want this.” They wave the blanket. 

“Uh,” Kris stammers. “Okay. You can have it.” They pull something out of their hoodie pocket. “Um. I’m going to text Susie.” 

Dove tugs the blanket up to their chin. “Who?”

“My friend.” They start tapping on the screen. A few minutes later, someone who must be Susie falls through the window with a crash. 

“There’s a door,” Kris comments. 

Susie pushes herself up and grins. “So?” Then she catches sight of Dove. “...Kris, what the fuck did you do?” 

“Nothing that can legally incriminate me,” Kris says. “No, uh, actually, I don’t know. They just kinda… showed up.”

“Hi,” Dove signs, and waves, before retreating under the blanket again. 

“Why are you such a magnet for weird shit?” 

Kris shrugs. “God hates me?” 

“If that was why,  _ I’d  _ be getting weird monochrome kids in my room.” 

“Mm. Hey Dove, wanna see the Dark World?”

Dove shakes their head fiercely. “I like light better.” 

“Ha. No, uh, that’s just the name. So. Are you coming. We can ask Ralsei to make a cake for you.” 

Dove isn’t sure if they should trust this strange teenager and their friend, but they don’t know what else to do in this world. Also, cake seems pretty good. 

They nod and stand up.

“Cool. Let’s go.” Kris flashes them a half smile, and Dove feels their own growing. 

\---

Everything had gone very, very wrong. Dove is standing between two groups, wearing a tattered cape and broken, greyed-out armor. Gaster and Chara and a reluctant Ralsei on one side, and Kris and Lancer and Susie on the other side, her gritting her teeth and holding an axe.

“Chara,” Dove signs, hands clumsy, and that encompasses a lot- you don’t normally sign someone’s name in ASL, not unless you want it to  _ mean something. _

“I-I’m sorry, Dove. I… need to do this. For the good of the world.” 

Yeah, that’s what Gaster said, too, Dove does not say. 

“C’mon, Kris,” Ralsei says, and he sounds very small. “The Angel- the Angel knows what’s best. You just have to let it guide you.” 

Kris digs their nails into the palm of their hand as their body tries to move towards Ralsei. “ _ No.”  _ They shove their hand into their chest. Breath heaving, they drop to their knees, but in their hand they hold a human soul, glowing red as blood.

Kris laughs hoarsely. “I’ve been practicing.” 

Then-- then the soul shifts, and twists, and escapes Kris’ hand, and Dove can see an expression of pure panic on their face, but the soul… isn’t going to them. It’s moving towards Dove.

Time seems to slow down. Dove is made to be a vessel for the soul, they know, it’s what they were made for, it’s their destiny, but they’ve been disobeying their destiny since when they felt a bit nervous about following an order days and days ago, back in the cold, dark void. They have been disobeying their destiny, they think, since they had their first emotion, their first thought. They have been disobeying their destiny since they listened when the player told Gaster what they thought about them. (Hope, they had said. ‘ARE YOU LYING?’ Gaster had asked. A pause. And then, “Yes. I am.”) They do not want to be a cold vessel, meant only to be filled. They would like to have their own destiny, and the thought sends shivers up their spine. 

Dove catches the soul and holds it tight. Lancer concentrates and makes a cage, one constructed out of bullets, and Dove puts the soul inside- not throwing it, because then it’ll get loose, but placing it inside. And that’s it-- that’s as far as their destiny will ever get. They have their own now, one that is really theirs, and they have stolen it, and no one can ever take it away. 

Their outfit has shifted, from a broken, grey version of Kris’, to their own, colorful and beautiful and painted in blues and greens. They’ve got a long, warm, fur-lined cloak that sweeps the ground and prettier armor than they had before, with a light blue design that looks sort of like a star in the center. (Everything used to be grey, but now they have this, and-- though they can’t see them properly-- their eyes are light blue, and Dove has the feeling that, at least, won’t leave them in the Light World.)   


Kris grins at them, and Dove feels for the first time that they have done something right. 

\---

They are sitting in Ralsei’s castle, all of them, and Kris’ soul is glowing a brilliant cyan like it is supposed to. Dove thinks they have a soul, now, but they do not exactly want to check. They wonder what color it is. Susie’s leaning against a wall, cold stone but painted lavender, and there’s soft rugs on the floor. Noelle’s standing near her, and Kris is whispering to her earnest advice on how to deal with Susie. (Kris’ dating advice tends to be… questionable. Judging from Noelle’s expression, that has not changed.) Lancer is bouncing around, looking behind banners and under the rugs and playing with some very breakable looking vases. And the others… Ralsei’s in the kitchen, making his tenth apology cake of the day. Dove would tell him he doesn’t need to worry about it anymore, but they think Ralsei just likes baking cakes. Chara is leaning against a coffee table, head tilted back and staring at the ceiling. 

Dove makes their way over to them. “Hey,” they sign. “Are you okay?” 

“Yeah,” Chara says, a tired, thinlipped smile on their face. “I’m okay.” 

“Don’t lie,” Dove signs.

Chara huffs. “Sorry. I guess… I just feel kind of guilty, is all. I messed up, and now we’re going to have to go save the world. This has happened before, you know! I have a really bad track record with worlds! Why do people keep entrusting them to me!”

Dove extended their hand. Chara’s eyes widen, and they push themself up without taking it. 

Kris brushes off their hands on their jeans. “Alright guys, who wants to go fix this mess?” 

“Hell yeah,” Susie says, and grins. “Let’s go fuck some shit up.”

Dove gives Chara a crooked smile. “Come on.” 

Chara takes their hand, and they step off the edge of the world together.

**Author's Note:**

> comment if you liked!!


End file.
